Rugby: Locks battle may be crucial

Bakkies Botha is rated as a second row enforcer of world standing. Photo / Getty Images

All Black lock Ali Williams has fronted up against Springbok lock Bakkies Botha in nine tests and speaks from experience: "When you play against Bakkies, you know it will be war until the final whistle," Williams says.

"He never gives in and he's constantly in your face."

The Lions and the Springboks squared off against each other in the first test early this morning with one of the key battles - not just in the test but in the three-match series - between the second rows.

In the red corner, new Lions skipper Paul O'Connell (1.98m, 111kg) and Welsh lock Alun Wyn-Jones (1.98m, 119kg). In the green corner, the 82-test matches of Victor Matfield and the 56 test matches of John Philip "Bakkies" Botha.

The latter have played 45 tests together - the longest locking link ever - and they have become the most famous locking duo in the game's history.

Matfield, 32, is the one with the profile. He's the thinker, the lineout code-cracker, the more mobile one, the ball skills one. He's also a bit of a gent.

A 2.01m, 110kg gent. Botha isn't. He's 2.02m, 118kg and, as many opposing forwards, including Williams, know he's a bit of a hard nut.

But it is not straining credibility too much to suggest that the Lions series against the Boks will be won and lost in the second row.

Botha reacted with some asperity to the suggestion of Willie John McBride, the venerable Lions lock, that fellow Irishman O'Connell will "boss" Victor Matfield around in the line-out.

"Boss Victor Matfield around?" Botha said, with barely disguised scorn. "Nobody ever bosses Victor when I'm around. Victor is phenomenal. He gets stuck in."

Botha has been getting stuck in himself - many of his critics would say not always fairly or legally - long enough to be rated as a second row enforcer of the same ilk as Colin Meads, Martin Johnson and maybe the hardened Frenchman Michel Palmie.

As a double act, Matfield and Botha are more than a physical threat. More than any other component of the team, they are the life-blood, the engine room, the beating heart of the Boks. Matfield is the acrobatic jumper, Botha is the ruthless marauder who gets up to all manner of things in the rucks and mauls, mangles a ball carrier or two and is the strong spine of the side. The Lions, if they are to win the series, will have to make that spine slip a disc or two.

Even when he's in repose, there is still a feeling of contained menace about Bakkies.

"Bossing the opposition around is what test rugby is all about," he told the Daily Mail. "To give it your all and be brutal up front is what I love. That's my game. We are preparing for whatever they throw at us."

He is also well aware that the Lions might be about to bait him.

"I have seen that with other teams over the last few years that they would target me because, let's be honest, I sometimes do have a bit of a short temper. Teams are going out to tempt me, I'm well aware of that," he said.

"So, yes, we are aware of the intention to try to lure me into doing something foolish, but it's all about being in control of the situation while also playing to the best of your abilities."

There were times in his early days when he might have been too brutal for his own good. His first four tests produced a sin-binning, a citing, an eight-week suspension for "deliberately attacking the face" of Australia hooker Brendan Cannon and a complaint from the Wallabies alleging that their man had been bitten .

Botha has waited 12 years for the opportunity to even up the score for the Lions' 2-1 win in 1997 and put a winning series alongside the World Cup, something which proved beyond the reach of Francois Pienaar's team in 1997.

He and Matfield aim to take their joint operation to new heights. "We have improved since the World Cup which is what makes this whole Springbok squad so special," Botha told the Daily Mail.

"Nobody ever said: 'The World Cup is enough.' It didn't end there."